Updated 9:55 pm, Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Carlos C. Cervantes, a World War II veteran who spent a lifetime in San Antonio and could trace his roots to the Canary Islanders who settled the city in the 1700s, died Saturday.

He was 88.

His lineage goes back to Canary Islander Jose Bernardo Cervantes, who made his way to San Antonio by way of Veracruz, Mexico, and Espiritu Santo Bay, said his son Charles “Chuck” Cervantes.

Carlos Cervantes' ancestors include a great-great-grandfather, Agapito Cervantes, who was one of Ben Milam's troops who marched on San Antonio on Dec. 5, 1835. His great-grandfather Manuel Cervantes was a member of the Texas infantry during the Civil War.

Cervantes, too, was a veteran. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in November 1942. The next April, he completed training and spent 27 months on sea duty, his son said.

After his service, Cervantes returned to San Antonio and went to work at Carl's Shoes, a downtown shop near the historic Walgreens drug store on Houston Street, where he often bought cigarettes from a young woman who would become his wife, Chuck Cervantes said.

The couple bought a house on the Northwest Side, where they started a family and lived for more than five decades.

Known to be gregarious and just, Cervantes went out of his way to help others, his son said.

“Everybody who met my dad liked him,” Chuck Cervantes said.

After he retired from Kelly, one day Cervantes and his wife were on their way to the grocery store when they noticed a new neighbor had moved in a few doors down and was painting his house.

When they returned from their shopping trip, Cervantes changed into his work clothes, grabbed his paintbrush, walked over to his new neighbor and said, “You do this side of the house, and I'll do that side.”

Chuck Cervantes said his father always lived honorably.

“My dad was the type of guy who always would consider what was right, even if it was to his detriment. He was very self-sacrificing.

“If somebody was going to take a loss in a deal, it was going to be my dad. He was a big believer in equality,” Cervantes said. “My dad always raised me that men of all colors deserved respect.”